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<!doctype article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
]>
<article id="index">
<artheader>
<title>D-BUS Protocol Specification</title>
<releaseinfo>Version 0.1</releaseinfo>
<date>22 January 2003</date>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Havoc</firstname>
<surname>Pennington</surname>
<affiliation>
<address>
<email>hp@pobox.com</email>
</address>
</affiliation>
</author>
<author>
<firstname>Anders</firstname>
<surname>Carlsson</surname>
<affiliation>
<orgname>CodeFactory AB</orgname>
<address>
<email>andersca@codefactory.se</email>
</address>
</affiliation>
</author>
</authorgroup>
</artheader>
<sect1 id="introduction">
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>
D-BUS is a system for low-latency, low-overhead, easy to use
interprocess communication (IPC). In more detail:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
D-BUS is <emphasis>low-latency</emphasis> because it is designed
to avoid round trips and allow asynchronous operation, much like
the X protocol.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
D-BUS is <emphasis>low-overhead</emphasis> because it uses a
binary protocol, and does not have to convert to and from a text
format such as XML. Because D-BUS is intended for potentially
high-resolution same-machine IPC, not primarily for Internet IPC,
this is an interesting optimization.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
D-BUS is <emphasis>easy to use</emphasis> because it works in terms
of <firstterm>messages</firstterm> rather than byte streams, and
does not require users to understand any complex concepts such as a
new type system or elaborate APIs. Libraries implementing D-BUS
may choose to abstract messages as "method calls" (see
<xref linkend="message-conventions-method">).
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
<para>
The base D-BUS protocol is a peer-to-peer protocol, specified in <xref
linkend="message-protocol">. That is, it is a system for one application
to talk to a single other application. However, the primary intended
application of D-BUS is the D-BUS <firstterm>message bus</firstterm>,
specified in <xref linkend="message-bus">. The message bus is a special
application that accepts connections from multiple other applications, and
forwards messages among them.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="message-protocol">
<title>Message Protocol</title>
<para>
A <firstterm>message</firstterm> consists of a
<firstterm>header</firstterm> and a <firstterm>body</firstterm>. If you
think of a message as a package, the header is the address, and the body
contains the package contents. The message delivery system uses the header
information to figure out where to send the message and how to interpret
it; the recipient inteprets the body of the message.
</para>
<para>
The body of the message is made up of zero or more
<firstterm>arguments</firstterm>, which are typed
values, such as an integer or a byte array.
</para>
<sect2 id="message-protocol-header-encoding">
<title>Header Encoding</title>
<para>
Following the mandatory fields, there are zero or more named fields (see
<xref linkend="message-protocol-header-fields">), and then nul bytes
padding the header such that its total length in bytes is a multiple of
8.
</para>
<para>
The header MUST begin with the following mandatory fields in the following
order:
<informaltable>
<tgroup cols=2>
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Size</entry>
<entry>Description</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>1 byte</entry>
<entry>Endianness flag; ASCII 'l' for little-endian
or ASCII 'B' for big-endian.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>1 byte</entry>
<entry>Bitwise OR of flags. Unknown flags
MUST be ignored. Currently-defined flags are described below.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>1 byte</entry>
<entry>Major protocol version of the sending application. If
the major protocol version of the receiving application does not
match, the applications will not be able to communicate and the
D-BUS connection MUST be disconnected. The major protocol
version for this version of the specification is 0.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>1 byte</entry>
<entry>A nul byte, reserved for future use.
Any value for this byte MUST be accepted.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>4 bytes</entry>
<entry>An unsigned 32-bit integer in the
message's byte order, indicating the total length in bytes of
the header including named fields and any alignment padding.
MUST be a multiple of 8.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>4 bytes</entry>
<entry>An unsigned 32-bit integer in the
message's byte order, indicating the total length in bytes of
the message body.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>4 bytes</entry>
<entry>The message's serial number, a signed 32-bit integer in
the message's byte order. Applications MUST NOT reuse the same
serial number for different messages more often than 32-bit
integer wraparound. Serial numbers must be greater than
zero.
</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
</para>
<para>
Flags that can appear in the second byte of the header:
<informaltable>
<tgroup cols=2>
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Hex value</entry>
<entry>Description</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>0x1</entry>
<entry>This message is an error reply.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="message-protocol-header-fields">
<title>Header Fields</title>
<para>
In addition to the required header information mentioned
in <xref linkend="message-protocol-header-encoding">,
the header may contain zero or more named
header fields. These fields are named to allow
future versions of this protocol specification to
add new fields; implementations must ignore fields
they do not understand. Implementations must not
invent their own header fields; only changes to
this specification may introduce new header fields.
</para>
<para>
Header field names MUST consist of 4 non-nul bytes. The field name is
NOT nul terminated; it occupies exactly 4 bytes. Following the name,
the field MUST have a type code, and then a properly-aligned value
of that type.
See <xref linkend="message-protocol-arguments"> for a description
of how each type is encoded. If an implementation sees a header
field name that it does not understand, it MUST ignore
that field.
</para>
<para>
Here are the currently-defined named header fields:
<informaltable>
<tgroup cols=3>
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Name</entry>
<entry>Type</entry>
<entry>Description</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>name</entry>
<entry>STRING</entry>
<entry>The name of the message, such as org.freedesktop.Peer.Ping</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>rply</entry>
<entry>INT32</entry>
<entry>The serial number of the message this message is a reply
to. (The serial number is one of the mandatory header fields,
see <xref linkend="message-protocol-header-encoding">.)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>srvc</entry>
<entry>STRING</entry>
<entry>The name of the service this message should be routed to.
Only used in combination with the message bus, see
<xref linkend="message-bus">.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>sndr</entry>
<entry>STRING</entry>
<entry>The name of the service that sent this message.
The message bus fills in this field; the field is
only meaningful in combination with the message bus.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="message-protocol-header-padding">
<title>Header Alignment Padding</title>
<para>
To allow implementations to keep the header and the body in a single
buffer while keeping data types aligned, the total length of the header
must be a multiple of 8 bytes. To achieve this, the header MUST be padded
with nul bytes to align its total length on an 8-byte boundary.
The minimum number of padding bytes MUST be used. Because all possible
named fields use at least 8 bytes, implementations can distinguish
padding (which must be less than 8 bytes) from additional named fields
(which must be at least 8 bytes).
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="message-protocol-arguments">
<title>Message Arguments</title>
<para>
The message body is made up of arguments. Each argument
is a type code, followed by the value of the argument
in a type-dependent format.
</para>
<para>
The type codes are as follows:
<informaltable>
<tgroup cols=3>
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Type name</entry>
<entry>Code</entry>
<entry>Description</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>INVALID</entry>
<entry>0</entry>
<entry>Not a valid type code (error if it appears in a message)</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>NIL</entry>
<entry>1</entry>
<entry>Marks an "unset" or "nonexistent" argument</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>INT32</entry>
<entry>2</entry>
<entry>32-bit signed integer</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>UINT32</entry>
<entry>3</entry>
<entry>32-bit unsigned integer</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>DOUBLE</entry>
<entry>4</entry>
<entry>IEEE 754 double</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>STRING</entry>
<entry>5</entry>
<entry>UTF-8 string (<emphasis>must</emphasis> be valid UTF-8)</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>INT32_ARRAY</entry>
<entry>6</entry>
<entry>Array of INT32</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>UINT32_ARRAY</entry>
<entry>7</entry>
<entry>Array of UINT32</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>DOUBLE_ARRAY</entry>
<entry>8</entry>
<entry>Array of DOUBLE</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>BYTE_ARRAY</entry>
<entry>9</entry>
<entry>Array of bytes</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>STRING_ARRAY</entry>
<entry>10</entry>
<entry>Array of STRING</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
</para>
<para>
The types are encoded as follows:
<informaltable>
<tgroup cols=2>
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Type name</entry>
<entry>Encoding</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>INVALID</entry>
<entry>Not applicable; cannot be encoded.</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>NIL</entry>
<entry>No data is encoded; the type code is followed immediately
by the type code of the next argument.</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>INT32</entry>
<entry>32-bit signed integer in the message's byte order, aligned to 4-byte boundary.</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>UINT32</entry>
<entry>32-bit unsigned integer in the message's byte order, aligned to 4-byte boundary.</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>DOUBLE</entry>
<entry>64-bit IEEE 754 double in the message's byte order, aligned to 8-byte boundary.</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>STRING</entry>
<entry>UINT32 aligned to 4-byte boundary indicating the string's
length in bytes excluding its terminating nul, followed by
string data of the given length, followed by a terminating nul
byte.
</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>INT32_ARRAY</entry>
<entry>UINT32 giving the number of values in the array,
followed by the given number of INT32 values.
</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>UINT32_ARRAY</entry>
<entry>UINT32 giving the number of values in the array,
followed by the given number of UINT32 values.
</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>DOUBLE_ARRAY</entry>
<entry>UINT32 giving the number of values in the array,
followed by the given number of DOUBLE values aligned
to 8-byte boundary.
</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>BYTE_ARRAY</entry>
<entry>UINT32 giving the number of values in the array,
followed by the given number of one-byte values.
</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>STRING_ARRAY</entry>
<entry>UINT32 giving the number of values in the array,
followed by the given number of STRING values.
</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="auth-protocol">
<title>Authentication Protocol</title>
<para>
Before the flow of messages begins, two applications
must authenticate. A simple text protocol is used
for authentication; this protocol is a SASL profile,
and maps fairly directly from the SASL specification.
</para>
<para>
[move the dbus-sasl-profile.txt stuff into here and clean it up]
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="addresses">
<title>Server Addresses</title>
<para>
Server addresses consist of a transport name followed by a colon, and
then an optional, comma-separated list of keys and values in the form key=value.
</para>
<para>
For example:
<programlisting>unix:path=/tmp/dbus-test</programlisting>
Which is the address to a unix socket with the path /tmp/dbus-test.
</para>
<para>
When connecting to a server, multiple server addresses can be
separated by a semi-colon. The library will then try to connect
to the first address and if that fails, it'll try to connect to
the next one specified, and so forth. For example
<programlisting>unix:path=/tmp/dbus-test;unix:path=/tmp/dbus-test2</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
Currently, a transport over local UNIX sockets exists, a debug
transport that only works in-process and therefore can be used
for for unit testing also exists. It is possible that other
transports are added, such as a TCP/IP transport, and a
transport that works over X11.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="message-conventions">
<title>Message Conventions</title>
<para>
This section documents conventions that are not essential to D-BUS
functionality, but should generally be followed in order to simplify
programmer's lives.
</para>
<sect2 id="message-conventions-naming">
<title>Message Naming</title>
<para>
Messages are normally named in the form
"org.freedesktop.Peer.Ping", which has three
distinct components:
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Namespace e.g. <literal>org.freedesktop</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Message names have a Java-style namespace: a reversed domain
name. The components of the domain are normally lowercase.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Package or object e.g. <literal>Peer</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The next part of the message name can be thought of as the name
of a singleton object, or as the name of a package of related
messages. More than one dot-separated component might be used
here. (Note that D-BUS does not define any idea of object
instances or object references.) The package or object name is
capitalized LikeThis.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Method or operation e.g. <literal>Ping</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The final part of the message name is the most specific, and
should be a verb indicating an operation to be performed on the
object. The method or operation name is capitalized LikeThis.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</para>
<para>
A reply to a message conventionally has the same name as the message
being replied to. When following method call conventions (see <xref
linkend="message-conventions-method">), this convention is mandatory,
because a message with multiple possible replies can't be mapped
to method call semantics without special-case code.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="message-conventions-method">
<title>Method Call Mapping</title>
<para>
Some implementations of D-BUS may present an API that translates object
method calls into D-BUS messages. This document does not specify in
detail how such an API should look or work. However, it does specify how
message-based protocols should be designed to be friendly to such an
API.
</para>
<para>
Remember that D-BUS does not have object references or object instances.
So when one application sends the message
<literal>org.freedesktop.Peer.Ping</literal>, it sends it to another
application, not to any kind of sub-portion of that application.
However, a convenience API used within the recipient application may
route all messages that start with
<literal>org.freedesktop.Peer</literal> to a particular object instance,
and may invoke the <literal>Ping()</literal> method on said instance in
order to handle the message. This is a convenience API based on
method calls.
</para>
<para>
A "method call" consists of a message and, optionally, a reply to that
message. The name of the "method" is the last component of the message,
for example, <literal>org.freedesktop.Peer.Ping</literal> would map to
the method <literal>Ping()</literal> on some object.
</para>
<para>
Arguments to a method may be considered "in" (processed by the
recipient of the message), or "out" (returned to the sender of the
message in the reply). "inout" arguments are both sent and received,
i.e. the caller passes in a value which is modified. An "inout" argument
is equivalent to an "in" argument, followed by an "out" argument.
</para>
<para>
Given a method with zero or one return values, followed by zero or more
arguments, where each argument may be "in", "out", or "inout", the
caller constructs a message by appending each "in" or "inout" argument,
in order. "out" arguments are not represented in the caller's message.
</para>
<para>
The recipient constructs a reply by appending first the return value
if any, then each "out" or "inout" argument, in order.
"in" arguments are not represented in the reply message.
</para>
<para>
The standard reply message MUST have the same name as the message being
replied to, and MUST set the "rply" header field to the serial
number of the message being replied to.
</para>
<para>
If an error occurs, an error reply may be sent in place of the
standard reply. Error replies can be identified by a special
header flag, see <xref linkend="message-protocol-header-encoding">.
Error replies have a name which reflects the type of
error that occurred. Error replies would generally
be mapped to exceptions in a programming language.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="standard-messages">
<title>Standard Peer-to-Peer Messages</title>
<para>
In the following message definitions, "method call notation" is presented
in addition to simply listing the message names and arguments. The special
type name ANY means any type other than NIL, and the special type name
ANY_OR_NIL means any valid type.
[FIXME the messages here are just made up to illustrate the
format for defining them]
</para>
<sect2 id="standard-messages-ping">
<title><literal>org.freedesktop.Peer.Ping</literal></title>
<para>
As a method:
<programlisting>
void Ping ()
</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
On receipt of the message <literal>org.freedesktop.Peer.Ping</literal>,
an application should reply with
<literal>org.freedesktop.Peer.Ping</literal>. Neither the
message nor its reply have any arguments.
[FIXME the messages here are just made up to illustrate the
format for defining them]
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="standard-messages-get-props">
<title><literal>org.freedesktop.Props.Get</literal></title>
<para>
As a method:
<programlisting>
ANY_OR_NIL Get (in STRING property_name)
</programlisting>
Message arguments:
<informaltable>
<tgroup cols=3>
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Argument</entry>
<entry>Type</entry>
<entry>Description</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>0</entry>
<entry>STRING</entry>
<entry>Name of the property to get</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
Reply arguments:
<informaltable>
<tgroup cols=3>
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Argument</entry>
<entry>Type</entry>
<entry>Description</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>0</entry>
<entry>ANY_OR_NIL</entry>
<entry>The value of the property. The type depends on the property.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
</para>
<para>
[FIXME the messages here are just made up to illustrate the
format for defining them]
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="message-bus">
<title>Message Bus Specification</title>
<sect2 id="message-bus-overview">
<title>Message Bus Overview</title>
<para>
The message bus accepts connections from one or more applications.
Once connected, applications can send and receive messages from
the message bus, as in the peer-to-peer case.
</para>
<para>
The message bus keeps track of a set of
<firstterm>services</firstterm>. A service is simply a name, such
as <literal>com.yoyodyne.Screensaver</literal>, which can be
<firstterm>owned</firstterm> by one of the connected applications.
The message bus itself always owns the special service
<literal>org.freedesktop.DBus</literal>.
</para>
<para>
Messages may have a <literal>srvc</literal> field (see <xref
linkend="message-protocol-header-fields">). When the message bus
receives a message, if the <literal>srvc</literal> field is absent, the
message is taken to be a standard peer-to-peer message and interpreted
by the message bus itself. For example, sending
an <literal>org.freedesktop.Peer.Ping</literal> message with no
<literal>srvc</literal> will cause the message bus itself to reply
to the ping immediately; the message bus would never make
this message visible to other applications.
</para>
<para>
If the <literal>srvc</literal> field is present, then it indicates a
request for the message bus to route the message. In the usual case,
messages are routed to the owner of the named service.
Messages may also be <firstterm>broadcast</firstterm>
by sending them to the special service
<literal>org.freedesktop.Broadcast</literal>. Broadcast messages
are sent to all applications with <firstterm>message matching rules</firstterm>
that match the message.
</para>
<para>
Continuing the <literal>org.freedesktop.Peer.Ping</literal> example, if
the ping message were sent with a <literal>srvc</literal> name of
<literal>com.yoyodyne.Screensaver</literal>, then the ping would be
forwarded, and the Yoyodyne Corporation screensaver application would be
expected to reply to the ping. If
<literal>org.freedesktop.Peer.Ping</literal> were sent to
<literal>org.freedesktop.Broadcast</literal>, then multiple applications
might receive the ping, and all would normally reply to it.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="message-bus-messages">
<title>Message Bus Messages</title>
<para>
The special message bus service <literal>org.freedesktop.DBus</literal>
responds to a number of messages, allowing applications to
interact with the message bus.
</para>
<para>
[document the messages here]
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="message-bus-activation">
<title>Message Bus Service Activation</title>
<para>
[document file format, filesystem locations, etc. for activation]
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="message-bus-location">
<title>Finding The Message Bus</title>
<para>
Two standard message bus instances are defined here, along with how
to locate them.
</para>
<para>
Each time a user logs in, a <firstterm>login session message
bus</firstterm> may be started. All applications in the user's login
session may interact with one another using this message bus. [specify
how to find the address of the login session message bus via
environment variable and/or X property]
</para>
<para>
A computer may have a <firstterm>system message bus</firstterm>,
accessible to all applications on the system. This message bus may be
used to broadcast system events, such as adding new hardware devices.
[specify how to find the address of the system message bus]
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<appendix id="implementation-notes">
<title>Implementation notes</title>
<sect1 id="implementation-notes-subsection">
<title></title>
<para>
</para>
</sect1>
</appendix>
<glossary><title>Glossary</title>
<para>
This glossary defines some of the terms used in this specification.
</para>
<glossentry id="term-broadcast"><glossterm>Broadcast</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>
A message sent to the special <literal>org.freedesktop.Broadcast</literal>
service; the message bus will forward the broadcast message
to all clients that have expressed interest in it.
</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry id="term-message"><glossterm>Message</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>
A message is the atomic unit of communication via the D-BUS
protocol. It consists of a <firstterm>header</firstterm> and a
<firstterm>body</firstterm>; the body is made up of
<firstterm>arguments</firstterm>.
</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry id="term-message-bus"><glossterm>Message Bus</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>
The message bus is a special application that forwards
or broadcasts messages between a group of applications
connected to the message bus. It also manages
<firstterm>services</firstterm>.
</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry id="term-service"><glossterm>Service</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>
A service is simply a named application that other
applications can refer to. For example, the
hypothetical <literal>com.yoyodyne.Screensaver</literal>
service might accept messages that affect
a screensaver from Yoyodyne Corporation.
An application is said to <firstterm>own</firstterm>
a service if the message bus has associated the
application with the service name.
</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
</glossary>
</article>
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